DAVID BUSCH’S ® CANON EOS REBEL 3 T i/600D GUIDE TO DIGITAL SLR PHOTOGRAPHY David D. Busch Course Technology PTR A part of Cengage Learning Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, United States David Busch’s Canon® EOS Rebel T3i/600D © 2012 David D. Busch Guide to Digital SLR Photography ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright David D. Busch herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to Publisher and General Manager, Course photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, Technology PTR: information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, Stacy L. Hiquet except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Associate Director of Marketing: Sarah Panella For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Manager of Editorial Services: Cengage Learning Customer & Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706. Heather Talbot For permission to use material from this text or product, Marketing Manager: submit all requests online at cengage.com/permissions. Jordan Castellani Further permissions questions can be e-mailed to Executive Editor: For Cathy Acknowledgments Once again thanks to the folks at Course Technology PTR, who have pioneered pub- lishing digital imaging books in full color at a price anyone can afford. Special thanks to executive editor Kevin Harreld, who always gives me the freedom to let my imagi- nation run free with a topic, as well as my veteran production team including project editor Jenny Davidson and technical editor Mike Sullivan. Also thanks to Bill Hartman, layout; Katherine Stimson, indexing; Sara Gullion, proofreading; Mike Tanamachi, cover design; and my agent, Carole Jelen, who has the amazing ability to keep both pub- lishers and authors happy. I’d also like to thank the Continent of Europe, without which this book would have a lot of blank spaces where illustrations are supposed to go. About the Author With more than a million books in print, David D. Busch is one of the bestselling authors of books on digital photography and imaging technology, and the originator of popular series like David Busch’s Pro Secrets and David Busch’s Quick Snap Guides. He has written fifteen hugely successful guidebooks for Canon digital camera models, including all-time #1 bestsellers for many of them, additional user guides for other cam- era models, as well as many popular books devoted to dSLRs, including Mastering Digital SLR Photography, Third Edition and Digital SLR Pro Secrets. As a roving photo- journalist for more than 20 years, he illustrated his books, magazine articles, and news- paper reports with award-winning images. He’s operated his own commercial studio, suffocated in formal dress while shooting weddings-for-hire, and shot sports for a daily newspaper and upstate New York college. His photos and articles have been published in Popular Photography & Imaging, The Rangefinder, The Professional Photographer, and hundreds of other publications. He’s also reviewed dozens of digital cameras for CNet and Computer Shopper. When About.com named its top five books on Beginning Digital Photography, debut- ing at the #1 and #2 slots were Busch’s Digital Photography All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies and Mastering Digital Photography. During the past year, he’s had as many as five of his books listed in the Top 20 of Amazon.com’s Digital Photography Bestseller list—simultaneously! Busch’s 150 other books published since 1983 include bestsellers like David Busch’s Quick Snap Guide to Using Digital SLR Lenses. His advice has been featured on National Public Radio’s All Tech Considered. Busch is a member of the Cleveland Photographic Society (www.clevelandphoto.org), which has operated continuously since 1887. Visit his website at http://www.dslrguides.com/blog. Contents Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv PART I: GETTING STARTED WITH YOUR CANON EOS REBEL T3I/600D Chapter 1 Canon EOS Rebel T3i/600D: Thinking Outside of the Box 5 First Things First. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Initial Set-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Battery Included . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Final Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Chapter 2 Canon EOS Rebel T3i/600D Quick Start 21 Selecting a Shooting Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Choosing a Metering Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Choosing a Focus Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Selecting a Focus Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Other Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Adjusting White Balance and ISO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Using the Self-Timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Using the Built-in Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 vi David Busch’s Canon EOS Rebel T3i/600D Guide to Digital SLR Photography Taking a Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Reviewing the Images You’ve Taken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Cruising Through Index Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Transferring Photos to Your Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Chapter 3 Canon EOS Rebel T3i/600D Roadmap 39 Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 The Canon EOS Rebel T3i’s Business End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Jumping Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Going Topside. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Underneath Your Rebel T3i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Lens Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 LCD Panel Readouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Looking Inside the Viewfinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 PART II: BEYOND THE BASICS Chapter 4 Understanding Exposure 63 Getting a Handle on Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 How the Rebel T3i Calculates Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Correctly Exposed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Overexposed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Underexposed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Choosing a Metering Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Choosing an Exposure Method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Basic Zone Exposure Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 A-DEP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Aperture-Priority. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Shutter-Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Program Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Making EV Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Manual Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Contents vii Adjusting Exposure with ISO Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Bracketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Bracketing and Merge to HDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Dealing with Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Fixing Exposures with Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Basic Zone Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 That Quick Control Screen Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Chapter 5 Mastering the Mysteries of Autofocus 103 How Focus Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Phase Detection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Cross-Type Focus Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Contrast Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Focus Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Adding Circles of Confusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Making Sense of Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Your Autofocus Mode Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Setting AF Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Chapter 6 Live View and Movies 117 Working with Live View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Live View Essentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Enabling Live View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Activating Live View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Focusing in Live View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Using Simulated Exposure/Final Image Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Quick Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Shooting Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Resolution and Frame Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Movie Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Capturing Video/Sound. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Video Snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Playback and Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 viii David Busch’s Canon EOS Rebel T3i/600D Guide to Digital SLR Photography Tips for Shooting Better Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Make a Shooting Script. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Use Storyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Storytelling in Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Lighting for Video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Tips for Better Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Chapter 7 Advanced Shooting 149 Continuous Shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 More Exposure Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 A Tiny Slice of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Working with Short Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Three Ways to Take Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Working with Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Delayed Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Self-Timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Time-Lapse/Interval Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 WiFi and Geotagging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Focus Stacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 PART III: ADVANCED TOOLS Chapter 8 Customizing with the Shooting and Playback Menus 171 Anatomy of the Rebel T3i’s Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Shooting 1, 2, 3, & 4 Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Quality Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Beep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Release Shutter Without Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Image Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Peripheral Illumination Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Red-Eye Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Contents ix Flash Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Exposure Compensation/Automatic Exposure Bracketing. . . . . . . . . 191 Auto Lighting Optimizer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Metering Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Custom White Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 White Balance Shift and Bracketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Color Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Picture Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Dust Delete Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 ISO Auto. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Live View Shooting Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Playback 1 & 2 Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Protect Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Rotate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Erase Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Print Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Creative Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Resize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Histogram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Image Jump with Main Dial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Slide Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Rating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Bass Boost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Ctrl over HDMI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Chapter 9 Customizing with Set-up and My Menus 229 Set-up 1, 2, and 3 Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Auto Power Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Auto Rotate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 File Numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Select Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Screen Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Eye-Fi Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 LCD Brightness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 LCD Off/On Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236